Crysis (DX10)
Crysis continues to be the measuring stick for beating the crap out of any video card. Using ultra high settings, only one card managed to break 30 FPS and it wasn’t either of the GTX 460s, but the HD 6850. However, between the two siblings, Crysis does seem to favour the memory bandwidth provided by the ZOTAC AMP! Edition over the high clocks of the overclocked MSI N460GTX. This benchmark does show that under the HD 6xxx architecture, there is something sinister lurking. Hopefully drivers and game optimizations really bring out this power because this is a huge win for Sub $200 video cards.
Far Cry 2 (DX10)
Where there is Crysis, Far Cry 2 isn’t too far behind. Here, we see great playable frame rates across the board which is great to see from all product in the gamer’s sweet spot of $200 and under. The HD 6850 is bested by both GTX 460s but between the two GTX 460s are the same until Anti-Aliasing (AA) is enabled. Then the extra memory bandwidth on the ZOTAC AMP! is utilized for a few more FPS.
Resident Evil 5 (DX10)
HD 6850 takes this one with both AA on and off. But between the two GTX 460s, the memory bandwidth provided by the 256 bit bus of the ZOTAC AMP! edition vs the 192 bit bus of the MSI N460GTX definitely helps it a long for a couple more frames.
H.A.W.X. (DX10)
With H.A.W.X. 2 already out, 2011 will mean a lot of changes to our roster of test games. But for now, this title represents potential performance for flight sim fans. All of the top performers are fairly close but turn on AA and the higher bandwidth of the ZOTAC AMP! kicks in for a slim win. HD 6850 is right there with the MSI N460GTX.
World in Conflict (DX10)
A lot of you may have been wondering why we don’t switch up to Starcraft II for RTS duties. Well, the simple answer is that it really is too easy of a benchmark and doesn’t really stress today’s hardware that much. The game will play on an 8800 ULTRA with all the details cranked with full AA. So that’s why we’re sticking with World in Conflict because it’s still good at a beat down. Both GTX 460s seem reasonably matched within FPS of one another. The HD 6850 hangs in there just fine.
Next we take on some tough DirectX11 benchmarks such as STALKER, Alien vs Predator, Battleforge and Metro 2033.